Wednesday, 25 January 2012

Staying connected no longer means staying put

Wouldn't it be great if you could access your stuff from anywhere, on any device, at any time - without having to lug around a laptop?

Now you can, and you don't have to pay a penny for the privilege. You can control your iMac from a Windows PC, access your home PC from the office or just grab a file you've forgotten over the air: if it matters, see more delivers it instantly.

Remote access is a very handy thing to have whether you're a road warrior or a couch potato. We've used LogMeIn Free to check on the status of downloads from the comfort of the sofa, and to check important work documents when we've been out and about.

You could use it to remotely edit a presentation, find a photo, grab a crucial file, sort out a spreadsheet or solve a colleague's technical problems from a different office or an airport lobby, or you could just keep an eye on time-consuming tasks while you do something more interesting or entertaining.

If you can get an internet connection - wired, wireless or 3G - then you can get into your computer from anywhere in the world.

The key to see more is its innovative application, which installs in seconds and provides speedy, secure and safe remote access to your PC or Mac.

Once installed you can provide several kinds of access: you can limit access to just you, you can share your desktop with trusted friends or colleagues, or you can set up file sharing so that others can access selected files and nothing else. 256-bit SSL encryption - the same encryption used by online banks - keeps your connection secure and safe from prying eyes, and strong password protection and access codes ensure that nobody gets onto your computer without your permission. LogMeIn Free will even wake your computer if it's gone into sleep mode.

How to use LogMeIn Free

Connecting couldn't be simpler: install LogMeIn Free on the PC or Mac you want to access. Then, from another computer, enter your account details into a web browser and choose the PC or Mac you want to connect to.

If you have an Android or iOS device, you can even use the mobile app to connect back to your computer. Connections are established instantly, and on a normal broadband connection performance is silky-smooth and lag-free.

The LogMeIn Free application contains some really useful features. You can invite people to desktop sharing sessions - handy for training and tech support - and make the invitation expire after a set period; you can create a selection of files you want to share with others when full desktop access isn't necessary; and there are extensive security options including IP address filtering, user access control and blockers for both Denial of Service attacks and authentication attacks.

If you wish, you can also lock the host computer after a session ends, when the connection has been lost or if the connection times out, and you can prevent sessions from starting until the user gets permission from the host-side user - that is, whoever's actually sitting in front of the host computer.